Marriage Equality: Get Ready for More Courtroom Drama!

There’s another major oral argument coming up in a few days, and we can’t wait. As you’ll recall, the last one of these went spectacularly well: all three judges were aggressive and exasperated at Indiana and Wisconsin’s antigay lawyers, asking them such tough questions that are one point the Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin tried to find an excuse to leave.

Next week’s argument covers cases in three states: Nevada, Idaho and Hawaii. We’ve been waiting a loooooong time for the Ninth Circuit to finally address these cases, and with time running out before the Supreme Court’s next session, rulings in those cases can’t come soon enough.

Of course, it’s possible that the Ninth Circuit judges will be the opposite of the 7th Circuit. They could be really nice to the anti-gay lawyers and mean to our side. But that’s not too likely, since the 9th Circuit has a reputation as a bunch of pot-smoking free love hippies. (Well, not quite that liberal, but close.)

But while gay couples jostle to get their cases to the Supreme Court, some anti-gay lawyers are doing everything in their power to put things on hold so they don’t have to go before the highest court in the land with their terrible arguments. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi just tried to put all of that state’s litigation on hold. But she failed, and now she’ll have to move ahead, presumably facing the same harsh exasperated questions that the Wisconsin and Indiana lawyers endured last week.